Tales Of Atlantis
by xfirefly9x
Summary: A collection of ficlets based on the characters of Stargate Atlantis.
1. Gone Forever

**Gone Forever (While The World Moves On)**

Prompt: #002 Sunset

Rating: PG15, maybe M (character death)

Notes: Written for 7rainbowprompts. Contains a character death, lots of angst and spoilers for "Sunday" (which I am yet to see myself but have read spoilers for and am hoping this works for…)

Elizabeth had loved to stand on the balcony overlooking the city, and watch the sunset and the swirling waters below as day faded into dusk and dusk moved into night. It had been the most soothing place in the city to her and from the moment she saw it, she had been hooked.

She'd had every reason to love it. Tall beams and columns reached up into the wide, endless sky, looming powerfully over the ocean. Deep waters below lapped at the edges of the city and ventured around them aimlessly, it's colour at any one time ranging from brilliant green to an intense icy blue to a dusty grey that even with it's lack of brightness was magnificent.

The balcony had been her personal getaway from work and the goings-on in the city, and she had found that nothing compared to the beauty it held. Nothing could've stopped her from going there and she had been sure that nothing would be able to stop her from loving it.

Nothing, it was, until the fated day that the Atlantean's lost one of their own. Carson.

As Elizabeth stood on the balcony that day, she felt numb. The usual calmness that came to her when she was there was absent and truth be told, she was almost a hundred percent certain that she'd never feel it again. At least, not while she knew about what had happened to the best doctor she had ever known; what had happened to her friend.

She choked back a sob that was threatening at the back of her throat and pulled her arms around herself protectively as if it would chase away the cold. Despite the coolness of the air, it was not the temperature, but rather the emotional pain that had her feeling that way.

Carson was dead, yet the beauty of the city still stood tall, refusing to wither and die, as it should. The sky was painted orange; a brilliant sunset that matched no others she had seen before. The beauty of it was devastating. It shouldn't be allowed to bring beauty into the world while Carson…

After fighting the impulse to cry for quite some time longer, she finally caved and let go. Tears streamed down her face silently and the aching in her chest ripped her heart open wider. She refused to wipe the tears away and instead focused intently on the deep oceans below; their dark, all-consuming waves matching the intense regret and sadness that was the only thing she had been able to feel since the moment she had known.

Carson was gone. He was dead and would never again be there to care for them; not her, not John, nor Rodney, Teyla or Ronon. No one. He was gone and it was forever.

He was gone forever, yet the world moved on.


	2. Like Home

**Like Home**

Prompt: #001 New World

Notes: Written for 7rainbowprompts.

Atlantis was a place like no other. It was mystical, beautiful, technologically advanced in so many ways and shroud in mystery that Doctor Elizabeth Weir and the new settlers she'd chosen for the mission could only wish to uncover and understand. It was different and exciting and it just felt so right.

They'd all known from the start that the day they returned to Earth might never come. The possibility was there, though. There was nothing to say for certain that they would be 'marooned' on Atlantis forever. Elizabeth found herself not caring either way.

If they never attained a ZPM or a power source to send them back to Earth, she was perfectly happy staying at Atlantis. If they did find a way back, she would only go knowing that she could return. Earth was no longer the place she called home, after all.

From the moment Elizabeth had set eyes on the city, she had known that it was where she was supposed to be. It was so far away from being like Earth and was a completely new world, but there was just something about it…

It felt like home.


	3. 3 Things John Sheppard Learned

**3 Things John Sheppard Learned From His Dad**

Prompt: #000 3 things John Sheppard learned from his dad

Notes: Written for kitakatzz

When he was a child, John's dad taught him all sorts of new and exciting things. One of those things was riding a skateboard. They would spend hours every afternoon after school practicing, and wouldn't return home until the sun had made its way down the sky, leaving them in darkness.

Another thing John learnt form his dad was everything there was to know about sports: football, hockey, basketball, everything. After their skateboarding sessions, they would retreat to the TV and watch the sports channel while they ate dinner. Sport had been, and would be forevermore, an integral part of John's life and it always helped him unwind after a long day.

Perhaps the most important thing John had learned though, was something his dad told him the last day they had seen each other. His dad had told him to follow his heart, to trust his instincts. If it weren't for that, he most likely would not be where he was now, on Atlantis. He never would have learned of the mysteries of the 'verse and never would have met all the people he now called his family. His fathers' words had pushed him into joining the mission to Atlantis and he would remember them always.


	4. A Higher Level

**_A Higher Level_**

Being an Ascended Being was nothing like Carson would have ever imagined it. It was, funnily enough, exactly how an annoyingly large number of people back on Earth would have pictured it.

Big fluffy clouds provided the backdrop to a heavenly world that knew neither night nor day. Glittering dots of…he wasn't sure what…hung in the air. An hour after he had arrived, he could have sworn that he heard harp music off in the distance, soft and sweet and as much as he wasn't fond of cliché's, the entire atmosphere of the place reminded him of honey.

Really, it was nothing like he had expected it would be; it was far from it, in fact.

Sighing to himself and dismissing that line of thought, Carson set off in no particular direction, on his new path. What he had once been was shed behind him as he went.

_fin._


	5. Lose Control

**_Lose Control_**

**_Notes:_**_ Tag to "The Rising"._

The stab of cold in his gut had nothing to do with being in the Antarctic. He wasn't overly fond of the icy weather admittedly, but it wasn't so powerful a dislike to make him want to vomit.

It was the chair of the Ancients that had his heart racing and his insides churning.

Apparently he had been unlucky enough to inherit the ATA gene that turned it on and because of that he'd been automatically slotted in to the list of those who could operate the Ancient technology.

He was to experiment with the chair and the chair…well, it was scary.

Scary as hell.

Mentions of weapons had come up and he was certain deep in his gut that if he was to attempt to interact with the technology that he would lose control.

He had a tendency to go with what his gut told him.

It was usually right.

_fin._


	6. Hollow, Empty

**_Hollow, Empty_**

A tangle of dark hair obscured Elizabeth's view of her bedroom and of the reality of her situation. She had spent minutes, hours, days turning what had happened over and over in her mind and even longer than that searching for a way to put things right. She had found nothing but a numb nothingness seeping into and eating at her soul.

Hollow. That's how she felt. Empty.

She knew she should be out at the SGC, trying to find a way back to Atlantis despite the odds opposing her but she just couldn't. The mere idea of doing something that might give her hope that she could one day return was downright painful, sending shockwaves of misery and cold through her body.

She needed this. She needed this time alone to just sit and stare into space as time passed by. They did say time healed all wounds, after all. Maybe, just maybe, it would heal hers.

Somewhere deep down, she knew that time would have no effect on her. She had lost the one thing that had come as naturally to her as breathing, her job as leader of Atlantis, and she had more significantly lost her home. Atlantis was the first place she had truly felt like some belonged and now she couldn't even visit it.

She had to forget and let the memories fade into her past as she had let Atlantis disappear behind her when she'd taken those last few steps through the Stargate. An era of her life had passed her by and it was time for her to move on also.

Sighing, Elizabeth slumped back against the headrest of her bed and without looking, pushed the notebook she'd been writing in earlier from beside her on the bed to the floor.

Time to move on or not, she needed sleep. Perhaps when she awoke the next morning, the numbness would be gone, allowing her to find her way forwards.

_fin._


	7. The Next Day

**_The Next Day_**

Sleep never came easily. She always tossed and turned and lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling for what felt like hours. After facing a day packed with the usual chaos Atlantis brought, one would expect to fall asleep immediately, the exhaustion taking claim of one's body. Rather, the nightmares took control.

She just couldn't sleep without them hovering over her head like a dark cloud and eventually she'd end up walking down to the cafeteria or her office or the infirmary where she'd converse with those unlucky enough to land the night shift. Sometimes she'd take some sleeping pills, but only as a last resort.

Sleeping peacefully was almost impossible and at night, she yearned for nothing more than to make it through to the next day.

_fin._


	8. Candy

**_Candy_**

"Dr Weir. The supplies you requested have arrived."

A grin spreads over Elizabeth's face before she can stop it and she reaches for her radio to respond. "Thank you, Chuck. I'll be right there." She climbs out of bed, where she had been sitting cross-legged over the day's load of paperwork, grabs her jacket and slides it on, and heads for the door.

She reaches the control room in record time and continues on down the steps to where several crates sit on the floor. Nodding at one of the marines' standing over it, she watches him remove the tape and open it.

"Looks like it's all here," the guy says.

Elizabeth swallows the smile tugging at her lips and nods. "Okay then. I'll grab my supplies quickly and then you can take these crates up to storage."

She kneels by the closest crate and retrieves a box with her name etched onto the side. Peeking inside, she sees the new radio she'd requested, along with a page outlining the contents of the crates and items that she'd been craving for the past week: candy. Lots of candy.

She waves distractedly at the marine and turns to leave. She is certain by the looks they give her that they've never seen her move so quickly in her time on Atlantis.

She smiles. "I'll be in my quarters."

_fin._


	9. Whatever It Takes

_**Whatever It Takes**_

"I'm afraid, Carson," Elizabeth says softly, "that I'm taking the wrong action, that the choice I've made is the wrong one. Do you think...should I have listened to Derek more seriously? Should I have ordered the city to be evacuated as he suggested?"

She pauses to swallow and fix concerned eyes on Carson. "He has, after all, been through this before. In a sense."

Carson looks back at her with equal worry in his eyes and he shakes his head. He attempts a smile that appears more painful to him than an expression of joy or contentment. "I think that you're doing what you think is right. One can only do so much and to do what you're doing, you've got to have a lot of courage. You're doing a great job, Elizabeth."

"I...thank you, Carson, but I'm not so sure about that. The lives lost so far... Was it worth it? Is it worth it to put more lives in danger?"

Carson ponders his next words carefully. "Aye. I believe so. Atlantis is our home now and we should be here to protect it. Now, I'm not saying the loss of a few poeple isn't horrible - I'm the last person who'd say that - but to keep our home safe? I imagine all those putting themselves out there are willing to do whatever it takes."

"You make a good point there. And I really want to believe what you're saying - "

"But you think you made the wrong choice," Carson finishes for her. He reaches over, takes her hand in his. "Love, have you ever heard the line 'A leader must have the courage to act against an expert's advice'? James Callaghan said it. Smart guy." He offers a pointed look.

Elizabeth studies him for a moment. Nods slowly in understanding. "Yes, I have heard that," she confirms. "Thank you, Carson. I needed that."

"Aye. Any time."

"I guess I should get back to it then," she smiles grimly.

Carson nods. "Good luck."

"You too."

They go their separate ways, but Elizabeth can feel Carson's strength right there beside her, guiding her.

_fin._


	10. A Bad Habit Of Dying

_**A Bad Habit Of Dying**_

He could easily detect even the slightest complication in a scientific equation. He had been doing it for as long as he could remember and liked to think that he was the only one in millions of people – perhaps more – who could do it as accurately as he could. His thoughts on that matter were not untrue.

Computers and technical jargon came as naturally to him as breathing came to the rest of the world. In a sense, when he was using such equipment, it felt like an extension of his very soul.

He was the smartest human within the Pegasus Galaxy that he knew of. Of course, had Sam Carter been there for a visit that statement would be…debateable. But she wasn't.

Despite all of that, there was something that he couldn't do. No matter how hard he tried, he had never really gotten the hang of it.

Gardening.

Green things.

Plants.

They had a really bad habit of dying on him.

It was such a simple idea, putting a plant in the ground, covering it with soil, watering it and watching it grow.

And yet still, he couldn't do it.

Every time he tried, he ended up with one more dead and wilted plant. One more bit of wasted flora to throw in the garbage.

Each and every genius had their flaws, he had realised many years ago, and gardening was his.

_fin._


End file.
